Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-05
CHAPTER II.


 GEN. MITCHELL MAKES WAR WITH AsTRo-
 NoMICAL PRECISION.
 The promptness and celerity of the movement by which Gen. Mitchell sur prised the enemy in his front and cleared the way for still greater enterprises was hardly, if at all, equaled by anything on the Union side during the whole contest. Pouring rain, flooded creeks and bridges swept away did not delay him moment beyond his calculations, though they add ed enormously to tho discomforts of the army under his command. Probably his scientific training was to some extent re sponsible for his appreciation of the value of minutes. Astronomers are accustomed to deal with the thousandth part of a sec ond and Mitchell, in his backwoods ob- servatory, had invented instruments which made stellar records with more precision than any astronomer who had gone before him, and thus won world wide fame in this department. He car ried the same qualities into the army. Leaving Shelbyville for forced march the morning after the Andrews raid had started on it's perilous way, and in exact time to secure the largest results from it's co-operation-for it's work was also to be done at q fixed period-he reached the vii
  the slightest intimation of his approach; then rousing his men at midnight by the light of the setting moon, he finished his march in the darkness. and came upon the sleeping town in the morning twilight, capturing everything-stores, messages, locomotives, trains and all the supplies of the railroad. ----, ---
 This was glorious triumph, but it was only the first of the three parts of which Mitchel's plan consisted, and he at once entered on the second. Friday, April II the very day on which we had reached Marketable arranged all affairs con- nected with the railroad management on new basis, and started two trains loaded with troops right into the midst of the enemy's territory. The first went vest ward to possess all the road in that direc- tion and to open communication with the armies of Buell. and Grant, then at Pitts burg landing, which was successfully and promptly accomplished. The other, com manded by Mitchell in person, started directly eastward. How far it should go depended partly on the resistance met, but still more on the news that might be re- ceived from the Andrews raiders. The little division of Mitchell presented on that clouded Saturday morning a most active and imposing spectacle to an eye capable
 
 road expeditions were rushing forward in rebel territory-for ours was also launched, and the other two, east and west, were in full progress-while his re- achievements and the regiments which had been outmarched were closing up on the central position at Huntsville. When Mitchell halted a short distance from Bridgeport, Ala, and only about thirty miles from Chattanooga, he knew that the greater part of his work was still undone. The whole north was thrilled by his success; he was made a major general and congratulated by the president, and ordered to report directly to Washington; but he knew that the key of the enemy's position, the grand stra- tegical position of the war, at least in the west, was still unwon. And he also knew that whether he could take and hold it depended upon the degree of success with which we met that day in disabling the Georgia State and East Tennessee rail roads Could he capture Chattanooga at this early date, that town, which with its 1 southward connections afterward cost scores of thousands of lives and around which struggled Rosecrans, Thomas Grant, Sherman, Bragg, Longstreet l for two years of deadly conflict? AIitche. saw the value of this point, and before breaking camp at Shelbyville had sent ou 1 party to destroy the bridges on this roa6 and the Chickamauga bridge on the Eas1 1 Tennessee road, thus with his own ad vance from the west cutting off all possi ble succor and leaving Chattanooga, now denuded of troops, ct his mercy. He had now halted until he could hear what h, had done.
 l But one mistake already had beer made We were to strike the bridges ol Friday, the very day that Mitchell strucl Huntsville. It was now Friday evening l and we had done nothing, while Mitche was within two hours run of Chattanooga with the road open before him, abundance of rolling stock, and the enemy in panic in his front The cause of this delay was that Andrews, reasoning in a way that would have been justified in the case of any other Federal general, was assured that Mitchell would inevitably be delayed more than one day by such torrents Of rain as had fallen since we left camp; and that for us to strike too soon would i'm pair the value of QUE work and might even I call the enemy's attention to Mitchel's I own advance; so he had sent word to Oul different squads that the grand attempt would be Saturday, the 12th of April, in